Exchange Insights Reports

More than 40 top hospital and health system leaders gathered for the annual HealthLeaders Media CEO Exchange to discuss how healthcare providers are launching into a wide range of partnerships, and determining the best strategies and combinations for their organizations.

Top healthcare executives gathered for the 2015 HealthLeaders Media CEO Exchange at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar resort in San Diego, CA, to discuss how their organizations should be positioned to survive a competitive environment that is constantly shifting and filled with uncertainty.

When more than 40 chief executives gathered in Colorado Springs, CO, for the 2014 HealthLeaders Media CEO Exchange, one of their main topics of discussion was healthcare quality. While the skills for improvement in quality may be present in healthcare organizations, there is a lack of consensus on what success looks like. Healthcare executives are forced to sort through multiple priorities around quality brought on by regulations and changing reimbursements. In roundtable sessions, these leaders discussed how they keep clinical quality and patient safety at the center of their organizational efforts.

The third annual HealthLeaders Media CEO Exchange gathered more than 40 top healthcare executives in Colorado Springs, CO, in September 2014. Many of the hospital and health system CEOs attending the event say that communicating strategy to physicians, other clinicians, and frontline staff so that they can carry out the change that’s developed in the boardroom is among their greatest challenges as leaders of their organizations. This report highlights how those leaders simultaneously guide their physicians and employees while at the same time inspiring them to lead. Change agent or not, the CEO can’t do it alone.

Clinical strategies at healthcare organizations across the country are changing to address value-based healthcare. Attendees at the second annual HealthLeaders Media CEO Exchange discussed the importance of creating new partnerships with physicians and the need to assess and embrace risk. No single strategy will work universally; different markets require different solutions.

At HealthLeaders Media’s second annual CEO Exchange, top executives discussed the difficulty of transitioning to risk-based structures. The transformation into coordinated, clinically integrated organization is fraught with uncertainty. Leaders find it difficult to gauge the speed of transition, both nationally and within their own regions. Yet some provider organizations are leading the way toward new provider-payer strategies rather than waiting for their business partners.

Nearly 40 top executives gathered in November 2013 at the Boca Beach Club in Boca Raton, FL, for the second annual HealthLeaders Media CEO Exchange. Attendees came from a broad range of healthcare organizations, including large health systems, community and rural hospitals, physician organizations, and payers. In small-group discussions moderated by HealthLeaders editors, these top executives debated three big-picture topics: evolving cost-reduction strategies, the risky new payer universe, and leading through the big clinical shift.

At the second annual HealthLeaders Media CEO Exchange, top leaders discussed their top concern: cost reduction and efficiency. They seek sustainable methods to reduce costs rather than one-time fixes. Successful financial stewardship for the future entails clinical redesign, physician alignment, and partnerships across the care continuum.

Of all the strategic shifts facing health systems in the coming years, none involves so many underlying fundamentals of the business as the shift away from a fee-for-service model of reimbursement to one more based on risk-bearing contracts and population health models. At HealthLeaders Media’s 2012 CFO Exchange and CEO Exchange events, senior executives described the shift as a great leap forward with both high potential and a big downside.

Finance leaders from nearly 50 hospitals and health systems gathered in Colorado Spring, CO, for the 2015 HealthLeaders Media CFO Exchange to discuss their experiences with a continuum of partnerships, including M&As, clinical affiliations, and relationships with commercial payers.

More than 40 financial leaders gathered for the fourth annual HealthLeaders Media CFO Exchange in August 2014 shared their experiences and ideas for revenue growth in a difficult environment. Healthcare organizations seek costs cuts and efficiencies wherever possible, but the financial executives attending the Exchange agreed that cost-cutting must be complemented with revenue growth. Financial growth requires a keen understanding of changing reimbursements and the impact of value-based payments; smart strategic bets; and financial, operational, and clinical teams who are willing to pull together.

At the fourth annual HealthLeaders Media CFO Exchange in August 2014, senior executives of hospitals and health systems across the country tackled the future of a changing healthcare landscape. Attendees discussed CFOs’ leading role in shaping the strategies to create a sustainable financial enterprise while driving many of the changes required for a new era of healthcare designed around population health and risk-based reimbursement arrangements.

In August 2013, the third annual HealthLeaders Media CFO Exchange took place at the Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs, CO. The 2013 Exchange brought together nearly 40 financial leaders from a variety of provider organizations from across the country, ranging from large, multistate health systems to independent community hospitals. Over two days, HealthLeaders editors moderated numerous small-group discussions on financial leaders’ top concerns: cost containment, risk management, and the clinical shift toward care coordination and population health management.

CFOs are putting a renewed emphasis on going after every dollar their organizations are owed. In addition, they are making the cultural changes necessary to break down internal silos and create environments where all employees are focused on developing better processes, reducing waste, and lowering the overall cost of doing business. This report highlights the many ways in which hospital and health system CFOs are pushing forward with their ongoing goals to cut costs and optimize revenue.

At the third annual HealthLeaders Media CFO Exchange, leaders discuss the challenges of determining the likely financial impact of risk-taking in a time of transformation, whether it means being accountable for outcomes, or simply being evaluated—and rewarded or punished—based on their organization’s record on process measures and metrics.

At the third annual HealthLeaders Media CFO Exchange, leaders discuss strategies for a major shift in healthcare: transforming from a provider organization essentially built for a high volume of acute care services into one that can manage the health of a population cost effectively.

Of all the strategic shifts facing health systems in the coming years, none involves so many underlying fundamentals of the business as the shift away from a fee-for-service model of reimbursement to one more based on risk-bearing contracts and population health models. At HealthLeaders Media’s 2012 CFO Exchange and CEO Exchange events, senior executives described the shift as a great leap forward with both high potential and a big downside.

At The Sanctuary in Kiawah Island, S.C., in September 2012, HealthLeaders Media’s second annual CFO Exchange gathered 30 financial leaders from hospitals and health systems across the nation—ranging from several very large systems to a small community hospital, and including not-for-profit, faith-based, and for-profit organizations and academic medical centers—for intensive discussions of their foremost concerns. In small roundtable sessions moderated by HealthLeaders editors, the financial officers shared experiences and perspectives with one another, offering solutions in many cases and on other topics expressing uncertainty and frustration. Here are highlights of the discussions.

In this first Impact Analysis from the 2012 CFO Exchange, nine CFOs take a deeper look at how they are assigning costs and driving them out at their respective organizations. The need to reduce costs—not just once, but permanently and sustainably—was top of mind for these leaders, and many felt the weight of a deck seemingly stacked against them. CFOs are grappling with declining Medicare reimbursements, value-based purchasing penalties, and a shift in inpatient volumes, while continuing to fund huge technology initiatives and expansion through physician acquisition or employment.

More than two dozen nurse executives from leading healthcare systems gathered for the inaugural HealthLeaders Media CNO Exchange held in Austin, TX, to discuss ways to attract and develop a top-notch staff, ensure workflow balance, and build the next generation of leaders.

Top nurse executives gathered for the inaugural HealthLeaders Media CNO Exchange, held at the Omni Barton Creek Resort in Austin, TX, to discuss changing nursing roles and care models, and to share details on what has worked at their organizations.

What kind of healthcare systems do exectives want to be running once the move from volume to value happens? Healthcare leaders discussed the many strategic choices, including business or care models driven by various technological innovations, at the HealthLeaders Media Population Health Exchange in Austin, Texas, held April 27–29, 2016.

More than two dozen senior clinical, information technology, and population health leaders, representing small community hospitals and urban health systems, joined the 2016 HealthLeaders Media Population Health Exchange in Austin, Texas, in April to compare population health experiments that worked, discussions that led to new understanding, and lessons learned about focus.

At HealthLeaders Media’s 2015 Population Health Exchange in Carlsbad, CA, over two dozen healthcare leaders discussed how to integrate population health into their organizations, by aligning physicians through clinically integrated networks and addressing the primary care gap.

Hospital and health system leaders gathered at HealthLeaders Media’s Population Health Exchange in Carlsbad, CA, to discuss population health analytics, their perspectives on data governance, and getting the right data to the right users.

The 30 CMOs, CMIOs, CIOs, and other leaders from top health systems across the country who gathered for the HealthLeaders Media Health IT & Quality Exchange, held in November 2014 in La Jolla, CA, discussed and debated the growing role of the patient: how their organizations are balancing what patients want with what can be delivered. Healthcare organizations today are challenged as patients demand more and quicker access to doctors and medical records, and clinicians and health IT leaders try to keep up with the change.

Thirty-three financial leaders gathered for the HealthLeaders Media Revenue Cycle Exchange, held March 23–25 at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar in San Diego, and discussed some of the challenges and opportunities they’ve identified within their organizations around data analytics, as well as the tools that help them maintain an effective revenue cycle.

Thirty-three revenue cycle executives from leading hospitals and healthcare systems across the United States discussed ways to better involve patients in meeting their financial obligations of care during the HealthLeaders Media Revenue Cycle Exchange, held March 23–25 in San Diego.

The 20 leaders gathered at the 2015 HealthLeaders Media Revenue Cycle Exchange in Austin, TX, tackled the challenges of clinical documentation, which they identified as the biggest threat to their organizations’ revenue cycle efforts.

Hospital and health system leaders gathered at the inaugural Revenue Cycle Exchange, held in March 2015 in Austin, Texas, discussed how to ensure their organizations are being as effective as possible with front-end, point-of-service, and back-end processes.